Whenever my cousin had talked about perverted topics with her friends and laughed shamelessly, I would roll my eyes at them and look at them scornfully. It was a defiant display of my innocence, and a symbol of how I"d remained undefiled in spite of their dirty minds. At the time, I"d felt proud of myself.
But now that I"d come to this world, I"ve become the most dirty-minded person, which felt very isolating. It turned out that dirty topics were only interesting when everyone talked about it together. When you were the only dirty-minded person, you would only feel lonely as everyone could only look back at you innocently.
Raffles, how long are you going to research about cuc.u.mbers in front of everyone?! Show some mercy!
"Attention, everyone! Attention, everyone!" Just then, Sis Ceci"s voice came through the speakers. Raffles stopped calculating and looked up. Finally, I was rescued from the awkwardness.
"Our Sis Meizi is going to give birth! Sis Meizi is going to give birth!" Sis Ceci repeated, full of elation.
When they heard the announcement, everyone became excited! All of them were cheering and beaming with joy!
In Noah City, giving birth was a more important event than a princess getting married, because it meant a new life was born. Every child"s birth was extremely important and precious to Noah City!
"Sis Meizi is giving birth!" Sis Cannon exclaimed, her voice as bright and loud as a cannon. She waved her arm and called, "Let"s all go and see her!"
"Alright!"
In my original world, you would never see such a scene of everyone in the city crowding around to watch one woman give birth. However, in Noah City that had a population of only two hundred and eighty people - less than four school years" worth of students back in my world - every child"s birth was a significant event to everyone in the city. Hence everyone would stream into the labor room and pray for the child"s safe delivery.
Due to the effects of radiation and the end of the world, reproduction had become much more difficult. Most of the men had lost their reproductive ability, which was very unfortunate.
Given these unique circ.u.mstances, the men and women of Noah City didn"t practice monogamy. Likewise, other cities in the outside world also practiced polygamy.
Of course, it depended on the city"s regulations as well. In Noah City, they followed the principle of mutual respect and believed in equal rights of both s.e.xes. If you didn"t feel like giving birth, Princess a.r.s.enal wouldn"t force you to either. Under such rules, the women would bear the onus of reproduction.
In some cities, women were obliged to reproduce and did not have a choice. Plus, if her husband couldn"t reproduce, the city master would choose a man with outstanding genes and force them to give birth to the next generation. As for what the women thought, each one had their own opinions and views. Just like how Sis Cannon had mentioned that she wouldn"t only have one husband.
On the other hand, a.r.s.enal only wished to grow old hand in hand with the one person she loved. She only wished to look up at the starry night on a green field, in a world that was clean and full of vigor.
And in her head, the man whom she would lean against to stargaze together was no doubt Xing Chuan. The thought of her sitting with that kind of man to admire the starry night sent chills down my spine. If Xing Chuan stargazed with you, he would definitely have ulterior motives beyond just stargazing.
In short, romantic relations.h.i.+ps and marriage were no longer viewed on the same scale in the world. Opinions differed according to the city"s actual situation as well as the character of the city master.
We ran to Sis Meizi"s house, where almost everyone in the city had turned up. The people on the maintenance team didn"t even have time to clean themselves up before they hurried over; they still had oil stains on their work suits and faces.
Everyone ran over in excitement, before becoming quiet. They stood across from Sis Meizi"s house, taking care to provide enough s.p.a.ce for the medical team to go in and out.
At the moment, Sis Meizi"s room was still quiet. Medical team members in light blue uniforms rushed in and out. In order to ensure the baby"s health, Noah City advocated natural childbirth. In a desolate world like this, it was extremely important to ensure the baby"s health.
Noah City"s soldiers carried a long table over. Sis Ceci and a.r.s.enal hurried over while helping Elder Alufa between them. Uncle Mason followed behind, unusually solemn for once. It was like a city mayor had arrived at the scene in order to direct a citizen"s birthing process. This would never have happened in my world.
Elder Alufa caught sight of us and waved at me. "Luo Bing, come over here."
"Oh." I walked over. As Elder Alufa took his seat, I stood behind him, next to Sis Ceci.
Ming You walked out from the house and Elder Alufa asked anxiously, "How is it going?"
"The labor pains have begun but the amniotic sac has yet to burst," Ming You reported seriously, "The situation isn"t great. We can"t rule out the possibility of a cesarean."
Elder Alufa nodded and answered solemnly, "It"s best if she can go through natural childbirth. If not, go ahead and carry out a cesarean."
"Understood." Ming You furrowed her eyebrows. "I reckon it would be a protracted battle."
The atmosphere became solemn because of Ming You"s comment.
Harry, Raffles and the other guys were standing on the second floor as they watched anxiously. Those guys who were normally fooling around looked extremely solemn at the moment.
I stood there without much understanding. In my head, I still thought of giving birth as an extremely easy task, as it had been in my world.
However, I was wrong. My understanding of giving birth was only superficial. I had only focused on the "outcome of giving birth" and thought of it as easy. In actual fact, it was far from easy. I, who was ignorant about the process of giving birth, ended up waiting for the entire night! A total of five hours!
In my brain, I pictured giving birth the way it was shown on TV. The mother would suffer from labor pains, then she would be sent to the labor room. Then, the child would pop out. I never expected that Sis Meizi would take so long to give birth! From the beginning of labor pains in the afternoon until late at night, she was still experiencing labor pains all the way!
Reality and imagination were different after all!
At first, Ming You and her medical team would come out to report every half hour. Then, the interval became every fifteen minutes. In the end, they came out to report every five minutes. Then, I heard a term that I never knew would be used during labor: pubic bone.
I didn"t even understand what it meant. I only heard Sis Ceci ask, "Is it open yet? How many fingers wide?" It seemed like that body part needed to be open for a few fingers wide before she could give birth. Sis Meizi happened to have great conditions for a natural birth, hence she had opted to not go through cesarean.
It was so torturous! For the first time, I felt great respect all mothers. Only after going through this process did I realize how great my mom was.
There was a tingling sensation in my nose as I thought of my mom. My mom had once told me that she"d had a difficult labor birthing me. I"d asked her curiously about it, but she"d only brushed off the question with a sweet smile. All she said was, "When you were born, I felt like I was the happiest person in the world."
My tears flowed down my cheeks uncontrollably, and I lowered my face to wipe them off. I didn"t want anyone to see and be worried.
I suddenly recalled the pregnant Second Sis. It was almost night-time. I had to bring her out. Otherwise, she would be anxious.
Actually, I knew that that was only an excuse for myself to head out so I could cry in secret, away from prying eyes.